Film law standardizes location rentals

Amendments to the film law, passed last week, will set location rental per square meter with the most expensive spaces (tourism sites, famous buildings) costing a maximum of $10 per square meter a day and the cheapest (provincial settings), costing as little as $1.

The top rates will only apply to areas actually being filmed, with lower rates for areas being used by crew and technical services and bargain basement rates for parking that even in a world heritage site in the center of Budapest will cost a maximum of $2.50 per car.

The new rules are designed to help stabilize production costs in Hungary and attract more top international projects. Over the past decade, since generous tax breaks worth up to 25% of local spend were introduced, pics shooting in the country have included Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” Tomas Alfredson’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “Die Hard 5″ and big-budget TV series including “The Borgias,” starring Jeremy Irons.